Manifesto: a new Third Space for the next generation of Tamils

Hari Mahesh
2 min readJun 24, 2023

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Third spaces are spaces where people spend time between home (‘first’ place) and work (‘second’ place). They are locations where we exchange ideas, have a good time, and build relationships, and can play in strengthening our sense of community.

Tamil Sangams and other such organizations were created by our parents and their generation for their Tamil cultural experiences. Many of our parents were born and raised in Southeast Asia, and they carried their cultural experiences with them as they immigrated to the West. Tamil Sangams and their events are curated to their Tamil cultural experiences as first generation immigrants — Tamil Sangam is their third space.

As their kids, as second, third, and beyond generation immigrants, we grew up going to these Tamil Sangam events and immersed ourselves in Tamil culture. Even outside of these events, we immersed ourselves in Tamil culture through movies, music, and comedy. Beyond the Tamil culture though, growing up in the West, we also grew up immersing ourselves in Western culture as well through school and beyond.

Now, as adults, many of us are at the intersection of both Tamil and Western cultures, balancing both at times, and at others, merging both together to create a unique blend of these cultures — sometimes Tamilized Western culture and sometimes Westernized Tamil culture. That is our unique experience as third culture kids, and that is a distinctively different cultural experience than that of our parents.

In that way, now, as adults, we likely may not fully fit into the older third spaces, such as the Tamil Sangams of our parent’s generation. We need new third spaces that cater to our unique culture entanglement of our Tamil and Western cultures — third spaces that are meant for us, built by us, for the ways we have fun, the ways we build relationships, and the ways we feel connection to our communities.

That is what we, ar•ram•bam, are striving to be — the new third space for us, those who are at the intersection of our Tamil and Western cultures. And, ar•ram•bam is not just for us, it’s for our non-Tamil friends as well, to share our Tamil culture with them and invite them into our community with open arms.

Our Tamil meetups in NYC were the first step in that direction, and we will continue to build on that direction with more meetups and more Tamil culture-oriented events, in NYC and soon share the love to other cities as well.

We’re just getting started, and we’re amped to embark on this journey with y’all.

ஆரம்பிக்கலாம்

Follow the journey on Instagram @arrambam__

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Hari Mahesh
Hari Mahesh

Written by Hari Mahesh

Director, NYC www.tks.world & host of IG/@tamilmeetupsnyc IG/@arrambam__

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